Or, how about a visit to an "e-house" near Hamilton or Camp X, a Second World War spy training camp?
It's all possible as the popular Ontario Heritage Foundation's Doors Ontario program kicks off another season letting people take a peak inside places that are normally off limits.
Expanding to 55 communities, these free events run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. starting April 24 in Guelph, then swing open in Hamilton on May 1 and 2, Whitby on May 1 and Chatham-Kent on May 8.
Guelph
Door Open Guelph offers an "eclectic mix of sites," said Sally Wismer of the Guelph Arts Council.
Some of the Royal City's "most architecturally and historically significant buildings" will be open to take a peak inside on April 24.
Visitors can discover the Hammond Radio Museum that houses more than 2,000 rare and historically significant items that reveal the development of radio over the past 100 years, Wismer said.
There's Homewood, a beautifully restored Italianate-style limestone house, once owned by Charles Kingsmill, first director of the Canadian Navy.
Stop by the Wellington Brewery, an independent microbrewery, producing traditional brews with all-natural ingredients.
There's the Linamar Corp. Frank Hasenfratz Centre of Excellence in Manufacturing, a new building that features many eco-friendly design elements.
The Ignatius Jesuit Centre has operated in this bucolic setting since 1913 and its main building, now called Orchard Park, houses businesses and organizations including the little-known St. Philopater Coptic Orthodox Church.
The Woodlawn Cemetery Lodge in Woodlawn Memorial Park is an 1883 Gothic brick structure that continues to be the home of the cemetery keepers.
There's also the community's second-oldest stone church, now a mosque occupied by the Islamic Society of Guelph.
On the railway siding behind St. George's Church is a 1941 wooden Canadian Pacific caboose restored by the Guelph Historical Railway Association.
Partnering with the Guelph Hiking Trail Club, there will be the city's first Trails Open experience.
Starting from the parking lot of Eramosa River Park, guided hikes will be led along the Radial Line Trail to discover interesting historic and geological features.
Chatham-Kent
Doors Open Chatham-Kent on May 8 includes Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site in Dresden.
Uncle Tom's is the home bought in 1841 by black slave Josiah Henson, who escaped from the U.S. via the "Underground Railroad." He established the Dawn Settlement there, a refuge for fugitives from slavery.
Doors Open publicist Sheila Gibbs said in Chatham, visitors can tour the former Ursuline Sisters' Pines Chapel considered to be the jewel of the work by architect Joseph Storey.
Then visit Caleb Village, the former nunnery now a retirement home, and renovated motherhouse that was turned into high-end condos.
Local entrepreneur Dan Warrener has turned the former Chatham Armoury into a special-event venue and natural history museum.
Visit Retro Suites, the latest hotel to occupy the site since the 1890s when Francis Towne Merrill built the Merrill Hotel.
This is one of Canada's most distinctive boutique hotels, with individually designed, automotive-themed rooms and a restored, original historic exterior.
Other Chatham locales include CFCO/CKSY/CKUE radio stations, Chatham Greenhouses, Maple Leaf/St. Anthony's Cemeteries and Mausoleums and St. Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church.
In Wheatley, check out Hickson Century Farm with displays of antique farm tools, tractors and gas and steam engines, and the Wheatley Harbour Authority, home to the largest freshwater commercial fishery in the world.
Hamilton
Other sites include the "e-House" in Puslinch, part of Doors Open Hamilton, referred to as the "no furnace, off-the-grid house." Open May 1 only.
Also in Hamilton on May 1 and 2 is the William J. McCallion Planetarium at McMaster University.
One of only a few remaining in Ontario, this 1950s planetarium reopened last year with "breathtaking technology that enhances the night-sky experience." To view a show, sign up at www.physics.mcmaster.ca/planetarium.
In Whitby on May 1, there's a Camp X Tour from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. led by author Lynn Philip Hodgson on the site of a Second World War spy training camp.
Jim Fox can be reached at onetanktrips@hotmail.com
IF YOU GO
Doors Open Guelph:
guelpharts.ca/doorsopenguelph; 519-836-3280; e-mail: gac@sentex.net
Doors Open Chatham-Kent:
www.doorsopenchatham-kent.com; 1-800-561-6125; e-mail: sgibbs@doorsopenchatham-kent.com
Doors Open Hamilton:
www.doorsopenhamilton.ca; 905-540-5086; e-mail: info@doorsopenhamilton.ca
Doors Open Whitby:
www.whitby.ca or www.doorsopenontario.on.ca;
Call 905-430-4306, ext. 2317; e-mail: doorsopen@whitby.ca
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